Fares Akkad leads Meta’s business across the Middle East and Africa, overseeing commercial growth, policy engagement and AI expansion across more than 70 markets. Most significantly for the region’s AI landscape, he led the rollout of Meta AI across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq — built natively into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with full Arabic language support, marking one of the most consequential AI product launches in the Arab world.
With over 20 years of experience spanning strategy, media and technology, Akkad previously scaled Shahid into the world’s largest Arabic VOD platform at MBC Group, and built his early career at Booz and Company, BCG and KPMG across media, technology and telecommunications.
